Lot Essay
Smart was in Majorca in the summer of 1965: '... and then we came to roost, in June, at Soller in Majorca. The reason for this was that Paul Haefliger and Jean Bellette had bought a property there, and Jean found us a farmhouse to rent. Brett and Wendy Whiteley were at Deya, nearby, as well as my Roman friends Elaine and William Broadhead. It was also inexpensive and I could make the money from the show [at Galleria Ottantotto, Rome, in April 1965] spin out. I was working for a show at the Macquarie Galleries in October, and Ian [Bent] was working well. ... We were back in Rome in September after a good summer of work and being with old friends like the Haefligers. It was that summer of 1965, thirty years ago, that I realised that at last my painting was 'getting somewhere'' (J. Smart, Not Quite Straight A Memoir, Melbourne, 1996, pp.388-89)